Tea Parties: Are They Just A Whole Bunch Of Book Clubs?

Politerati:

Media-types (okay, people like me) are having a lot of trouble wrapping our heads around the vast, leaderless structure of the tea party.

You see, it's much easier for us to write an article about something if we can sum it up with an appositive phrase: "The tea party, which is a conservative movement"

Read the whole story: Politerati

Comments

[jgrh]

08:07 PM on 08/27/2010

This would mean they actually read. I would need proof of that.

[MetrointheWoods]

11:36 AM on 08/15/2010

IF I were a rank-in-file Republican (not republithug, teabagger, warmonger, etc.) I think I'd be really, really upset and embarassed right now. Since January 1992, they've told their membership how they're the party of 'Family Values' in America.

This Palin custody battle is just the newest in a long line of embarassing public spectacles on what should be private matters. The actions themselves contradict everything the party allegedly stands for: from Mark Foley and Newt to Ensign and everything with the name Palin.

In 2008, the republithug party nominated for National Office:

A presidential candidate who, amongst his many other offenses, met his second wife (20 years his junior) while vacationing by himself in Hawaii, still being married to his first wife;

A vice-presidential candidate who allowed her unmarried teenage daughter conceive a child in her own house;

Virtually every evangelical and radical minister and pastor in America endorsed this over:

A presidential candidate married with two children and NO evidence of adultery;

A vice-presidential candidate who, after losing his wife and daughter in an auto accident, raised two boys singlehandedly...both went on to become respectable members of society.

Somebody, anybody explain how this computes or makes sense, please!

[onlytruewords]

07:03 PM on 08/14/2010

Sarah Palin: Legitimate Questions for the President
*
Gov Palin has some questions for President Obama, and she posted them on Facebook Saturday:
Legitimate Questions for the President

Mr. President, should they or should they not build a mosque steps away from where radical Islamists killed 3000 people? Please tell us your position. We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they? And, no, this is not above your pay grade. If those who wish to build this Ground Zero mosque are sincerely interested in encouraging positive "cross-cultural engagement" and dialogue to show a moderate and tolerant face of Islam, then why haven't they recognized that the decision to build a mosque at this particular location is doing just the opposite? Mr. President, why aren't you encouraging the mosque developers to accept Governor Paterson's generous offer of assistance in finding a new location for the mosque on state land if they move it away from Ground Zero? Why haven't they jumped at this offer? Why are they apparently so set on building a mosque steps from what you have described, in agreement with me, as "hallowed ground"? I believe these are legitimate questions to ask.

- Sarah Palin

[maslin]

07:19 PM on 08/14/2010

Posting this once a minute across the site in different articles still qualifies as spam, buddy.

[onlytruewords]

08:39 PM on 08/13/2010

Death wisher Keith Halloran suspends campaign in NH
*
From RedHampshire.com comes word that Keith Hallaron has told WMUR that he will not actively campaign for the New Hampshire House:
Halloran at first called the criticism of his comment a “tempest in a tea party tea pot,” but he later issued a statement on Facebook apologizing for the post. Thursday, he said he was withdrawing from the race for District 7.

“After consulting with the secretary of state’s office, I am withdrawing as an active candidate for the New Hampshire House,” Halloran said in a written statement.
Another New Hamshire Dem, State Rep. Timothy Horrigan, had already resigned his seat and said that he would not seek re-election after ill-considered comments that he posted on Facebook as well.

Sarah 2, NH Dems 0.

[onlytruewords]

06:44 PM on 08/13/2010

Gov. Palin: Wikileaks is 'aiding/abetting the enemy'
*
Sarah Palin condemned Wikileaks on Twitter Friday morning for 'aiding/abetting the enemy':
Wikileaks staff-whomever's calling the shots there is unconscionably aiding/abetting the enemy;don't contribute to this. Speak out. Do right

Wikileaks: w/freedom comes responsibility.Free press protection gives no license to aid enemy;consider our own troops sacrificing for you...

[onlytruewords]

10:11 PM on 08/12/2010

A New Hampshire candidate for the state house is taking heat from the state Republican Party after he wrote on a Facebook thread that he wishes former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and the father of her grandson were in the plane crash that killed former Sen. Ted Stevens in Alaska on Monday.

“Just wish Sarah and Levy (sic) were on board,” wrote Keith Halloran, a Democratic candidate for Cheshire County House District 7, referencing Palin and Levi Johnson, the on-again, off-again boyfriend of her daughter.

Stevens and four others died in the crash after the plane headed to a fishing trip slammed into the side of a mountain in Alaska.

The comment from Halloran was in response to a post on Facebook from Republican state Rep. DJ Bettencourt about Steven’s death, who said, “I find it truly sad and sickening that some folks can’t find a way to be positive or at least keep quiet about someone when they pass away.”

The New Hampshire GOP called Holloran’s “outrageous comment” a “new low, even by the standards of the New Hampshire Democrat (sic) Party.”

“His publicly stated death wish for Governor Palin and her family is abhorrent, and has no place in our public discourse,” said NHGOP communications director Ryan Williams.

[onlytruewords]

10:09 PM on 08/12/2010

Rush Limbaugh on democrats wishing for Sarah Palin's death: 'They will tell you who they fear'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z07n775T0HA&feature=player_embedded

[maslin]

09:47 PM on 08/14/2010

'Rush Limbaugh on democrats wishing for Sarah Palin's death: 'They will tell you who they fear''

Ohboy.

The title of this post should be:

World's Richest Vein Of Irony Discovered! Experts Say: Enough Irony To Power World For Two Thousand Years

[BillForObama]

05:32 AM on 08/12/2010

If they were book clubs would imply that they could read.

[iconoclast6]

12:21 PM on 08/11/2010

...they can.........READ?

The ρizz was already there. I just took it.

[dowl]

02:11 AM on 08/11/2010

After purchasing Sarah Palin's ghost written 'Going Rogue' (as she is wont to do), the book club selections would include only those endorsed by Fox's Glenn Beck and/or written by Bill O'Reilly, and if one has been written for Sean Hannity. Oh yeah, and Ayn Rand's opus, and selected portions of the Bible that do not include the poor and not much of the New Testament.

This keeps the teapeople wee wee'd up enough to enlarge the circular firing squad that is decimating the Republican party and scaring the hell out of conservatives along with the rest of reasonable Americans.

Of course the greedy, manipulative, and power hungry 'media controllers' support the meltdown of this democratic republic. The rich and powerful (think Rupert Murdoch and his minions) grab global power and those of us who earn less than $200,000 per year are penalized for this continuing shift of wealth to Bush's 'have mores.' What happens when there is no longer a middle class? Do teapeople miraculously become 'have more?' OR do they suffer along with the growing body of 'have nots?'

Teapeople, if your income is less that $250,000 per year, you should seriously consider why tea bagging is in your best interests.

[Mercedes]

08:16 PM on 08/10/2010

Book Clubs?

I doubt half the people in the Tea Party know how to read past a third grade level, so how could they be a bunch of Book Clubs?

All they care about is making sure President Obama doesn't succeed in anything. They have been br@inw@shed by the Republicans to rally, support and push for keeping W. Bush's tax cuts, foolishly thinking that they will be keeping more of their own money, but not realizing that they are among the 92% of us who pay for everything and will Continue to pay for everything while the top 8% will be raking in the dough.

They are being Used by the GOP and don't even realize it because most of them are on Social Security and Medicare and have owned their own homes for years so they don't have to worry about their future...

Everyone have a Good Evening...

[Tails]

08:21 PM on 08/10/2010

I'd arge they're simply a more vocal wing of the far, far right that has realized that can't beat Dems, so they'll cannibalize their own party/members.